Sunday, September 27, 2009

I hosted my cousins baby shower this weekend. We had a high tea for about 18 ladies. What fun! My cousin looked beautiful and the tea turned out nice. The above picture is the party favors we handed out.

The tables turned out nice. My cousin is expecting a girl, so the theme was pink!

The mother to be.

I had to take pictures of the food!

And desserts!

My mother was even able to attend.

I am so happy to have been a part of Holly's shower. I had fun putting it together. I am so excited for both of them.

The second part of this weekend was another dinner party on Sunday. We had our new parish priest come to dinner along with some close friends. I was so caught up in everything that I forgot to pull my camera out. I hate when I do that. Overall a great weekend visiting family and friends. I am exhausted but feel very uplifted.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

I haven't posted in a long time. Sorry about that! The past two weeks have been heck! My mother developed a skin infection that takes daily care and then she fell last week. Thank God she didn't break anything. She ended up bruising her ribs and cutting up her hand pretty bad. We are very fortunate. It is just so sad to see such a strong woman slowly diminish before you.

To keep my sanity, I have been busy cooking and crafting when I can find the time. Fall sports has started and that spells craziness for our family. My oldest has decided after 8 years of soccer that he wanted to try football. Oh, it makes a mothers heart skip a beat. Fortunately, he is only playing flag football not tackle, so it is not so bad. My two younger boys are still playing soccer. That means we have practice with one or two sports every day of the week and games on Saturday and Sunday. I love fall, but I forget how crazy it is on the family.

Since it is almost fall, even if the weather is in the 90's, I have pulled out my fall projects. I made this cute pumpkin necklace from some lampwork beads I purchased online a few years ago. Sorry, I can't remember the bead artist I got it from. I love the copper with the orange of the pumpkin. Very fun and very fall!

This tart was so good! it was fantastic, really, really fantastic! I found the recipe at Andrea's blog, Under a Blue Moon. You can click here for the recipe. Her tart came out prettier than mine, but I bet they both tasted great. It is so easy to make. I had gone to the farmers market that morning and purchased organic zucchini, yellow squash, red onions and sweet red peppers. I purchase a store bought pie crust and let it thaw then smushed it into a tart pan and baked. I then sprinkled a very generous amount of goat cheese over the cooled crust and layered with my vegetables. Top with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and bake until veggies are tender. Andrea also has an apple tart on her site. I will have to try that next. YUM!

On top of it all, Hubby's birthday was earlier this month. It was the big 5-0! We didn't do anything big, but enjoyed a nice weekend with family.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Today is hubby's birthday. It has been one tough year for us, but though it all he has remained strong and a rock for our family. I love his wit, compassion, sense of faith and strength. Happy 50th Birthday!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

My dear friends niece was part of this flash mob in San Francisco. I had never heard of a flash mob before. According to Merriam Webster a flash mob is a group of people summoned by e-mail or test message to a designated location at a specified time to perform an indicated action before dispersing. This event reminds me of how a musical is on film. The actors break out in song and dance and then go back to there normal routines.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

My dear sweet cousin sent me this link to Sunday Suppers. What a beautiful blog. Their pictures are stunning. The Brooklyn based Casey Solomon and Karen Mordechai are the brains behind all of this. Casey cooks and teaches and Karen takes breathtaking photos of the meals. The premise is a learning and dining experience using organic and market fresh, in season food to create a memorable meal. The pictures alone are inspirational. I was inspired to try to make our Sunday supper a little more special this past week. I loosely followed one of her menus and made this menu for our meal; grilled skirt steaks, pureed parsnips, tossed green salad and fresh fruit. I also tried Ina Gartens Gougeres( cheese puffs), for part of our appetizers. They were fabulous and easy to make. The show stopper of the evening was Casey's dessert, bittersweet chocolate pot de creme with almond cream. OMG!!!! It was incredible. More than that it was stinking easy to make. Check out her recipe here.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

I really wish I had pictures to share with you. I had the most wonderful lunch with one of my dearest friends. Alisa and I have known each other since high school and we have seen each others through the ups and downs of life. With both of our hectic lives, we don't get to see each other as often as we both would like. However, we always make sure to see each other for our birthdays. My birthday was last month. We found a day in both of our schedules to meet an d go to lunch. Since it was my birthday, I got to pick the place. I chose La Provence restaurant in Roseville. We had the most wonderful lunch. We started out with a lovely tapanade as our starter. I had a cup of carrot and ginger soup the was nice and she had the Caesar salad. My main course was the gnocchi Maison with a truffled cream sauce and a balsamic glaze. The gnocchi was light and delicate and melted in your mouth. I have had horrendous gnocchi and I have had fantastic gnocchi and this rates with the best. Delicious! Honestly, I could have bathed in that sauce. It was so good and had a very complex flavor. I was skeptical about the balsamic on the gnocchi, but it was a perfect foil to the richness of the dish. If I wasn't in public, I would have licked the dish. I have no shame, I know. Alisa had the Coquilles St. Jacques, which were diver scallops on a corn cake with mesclun salad. Tres bien! Our service was terrific and the place was absolutely gorgeous. I will definitely be going back. After the week I have had, it was nice to spend time with a dear friend and just forget about everything for awhile. The task of taking care of my parents has become more difficult. This week in particular, they have been obstinate on their care. I really understand on trying to preserve the dignity of getting old, but when the safety outweighs the dignity you really have to take a stand. It is totally the pits! Big understatement.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

My middle son came home from school yesterday and wanted to cook. Ever since he was a little kid, he has wanted to be a chef. He is still really interested in cooking, but now I think he wants to be a motorcycling riding, jet flying pilot and chef. Don't you just love kids! One of his new teachers this year is Indian. She did a cooking demonstration in class and had the kids make roti. J. came home with the recipe and started at it. They were really yummy! He was so proud of what he did all by himself.

Simple Roti Recipe (by Ms. Ladi)

1 cup whole wheat flourpinch of saltchilled water

1. Add enough water to the flour to make a soft dough.2. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes.3. Cover with a damp cloth and leave at room temperature for a least half an hour.4. Break dough into 4 pieces5. With the hands, stretch the dough out, fold in half, and repeat this 4 or 5 times. Roll out to approximately 2mm thick, shake off excess flour.6. Preheat hot plate or griddle.7. Place roti's onto hot griddle one at a time, and cook for a minute or so, until it starts to go crispy. Turn, cook another minute, then turn again. It should puff up. If your roti's don't puff up a lot, it doesn't really matter.8. Keep warm. If they do get cold they may go a bit hard, but sprinkle with water, cover, and microwave for a few seconds and they will go soft again.